Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College

Black BC Walking Tour is an interactive tour that allows online and mobile users to discover and explore black BC’s complex history on campus, in Boston, and in the nation. It mines anecdotal and informal resources as well as BC archives to commemorate the presence and contributions of black BC, and to document how this community participates in Boston’s black communities. The site is also a resource for BC students, faculty, staff, alums, and scholars who conduct research on race.

Read more About Us

Take a Tour

Random Stories

10 June 2020 – Facing outward toward Commonwealth Avenue, a crowd of about 100 protesters, including Boston College students and Jesuits, covered the lawn of St. Ignatius Church on Sunday afternoon. At the demonstration, organized by students from…

October 1970 - Black students of Fenwick Hall say that a dorm solely for black students is necessary “to help make this adaption to white society easier,” to have "a haven from ignorant stares and rude behavior,” according to the article. Frank…

19 October 2006 - Students and administrators attend rallies held in the Quad (space between Lyons, Gasson, Devlin, and CSOM) and community meetings to address a lack of protocol for hate crimes. Fliers that promoted white supremacy were found in…

September 1933– Casper Augustus Ferguson, BC ’37, becomes the University’s first black student. “The 1937Sub Turriyearbook suggests Ferguson had at least one friend among the 281 graduates. In a three-sentence biography beneath his portrait, David…

23 October 1989 - AHANA House is renamed to Thea Bowman Center. During the dedication ceremony, Bowman calls on AHANA students to teach the BC community to include AHANA in the first stage of plans, not just the final stage, and challenges the white…

11 April 2008 – For more than 25 years, Hubert Walters has directed Boston College’s Voices of Imani gospel choir (imani means “faith,” in Swahili) and served as a lecturer in music and African and African diaspora studies. On April 11, before a…

Browse all 27 Stories